Return of The Ancients - my attempts at the Neo-Native challenge

[Guest jeffpeng]

Dangerous the masochistic side of the force is. Cloud your mind, it will. Ready you are not, hmpf. *bonks stick on head*

[Sgt Socks]

**rummages in cupboard, throwing stuff at Conan's head... grabs torch**

Mine! Mine! Or I will help you not!

[conanjaguar]

Interloper / Native 7 / Day 1

Vanilla ‘Loper, nothing added, nothing taken away!
As I clicked the start button, I muttered a brief prayer to not let me start in Blackrock, HRV, or Ash Canyon. After a few seconds, the run was officially started, and I was standing on Timberwolf Mountain with my back to a very long drop. Seriously considering suicide…
After dropping all my clothes in a neat pile and picking a few Reishi mushrooms, I elected to goat down the long drop whilst going as far “left” (relative to my starting point) as possible. 

After spraining one of my wrists and losing a bit of condition, I glimpsed a fishing hut off in the distance. A howl from the friendly neighborhood serial killer (bonus points if you know who) rudely informed me that, yes, this was indeed Crystal Lake, and, yes, I was about to die.

I led the wolf in a long path to the fishing hut, where I took shelter whilst looking around for anything of use. Wait… what was that under the stove? It was the Heavy Hammer!!! Elated, I picked a few cattails while spying on the serial killer, who had taken down a nearby deer, I’m sneaky!
before running up the slope and into the Mountaineer’s Hut… for my first time ever!

I did a little victory dance, before realizing that it was still cold. I lit up the fireplace with the matches I found, and piled on the fuel. I set a can of snow on to boil, and waited for a bit to warm up before pulling a few torches and going out to grab some more cattails…

Thirty minutes later, I returned with over 30 cattails and nearly 20 sticks. A few minor interruptions from the wolves were the only annoyances of this lovely evening. But then, I realized a problem… I still didn’t have enough fuel to last the night! After warming up and making a cup of tea, I went out to bop some bunnies.

C’mere, wittwe wabbit!
That little venture was successful; I returned with two bunnies, a few cattails, a few more sticks, and two pieces of birch bark, which I brewed into a tea and sipped at while harvesting the bunny meat.
I then took a quick two-hour nap and awoke to this beautiful scene!Truly, one of the most beautiful auroras I have seen in this gem that Hinterland calls a game!

Now, it is night, and a heavy snow falls outside. The fire has perhaps an hour left.How will I get myself out of this mess?

[Sgt Socks]

1 hour ago, conanjaguar said:

The aurora is beautiful, but I'm really drawn to this gorgeous shot. There is something so soothing about a fire warming the darknesss. Cracking photo Conan.

1 hour ago, conanjaguar said:

I was standing on Timberwolf Mountain with my back to a very long drop....

.. into the Mountaineer’s Hut… for my first time ever!

...How will I get myself out of this mess?

Ye Gods. That is a very good question Conan! TWM for the first time on Interloper with additional challenge rules?

I don't think you need our discouragement Conan, more like our assistance in pleading your case to the Gods of the Mountain!

I wouldn't touch these conditions with a bargepole and I know TWM fairly well.

Sod the discouragement, bloody good luck my darling!

Edited October 26, 2022 by Sgt Socks

[conanjaguar]

@Sgt Socks

And… you jinxed it .

[Sgt Socks]

8 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

@Sgt Socks

And… you jinxed it .

Don't blame me, you're the one doing this insane challenge! 😜😄

And you know I'm a big softie so I can't be discouraging and mean for too long! 🤷‍♀️

[Leeanda]

I really do love your writing style and wit..  

Just to be on the safe side.....I hope you freeze to the blankets while Wolfie nibbles on your toes😁. (Murphy's fault).

Edited October 26, 2022 by Leeanda
Stupid autocorrect!!!!

[Leeanda]

May you get frostbite everywhere .    And get hypothermia from picking up one stone...   🙂 

May your tackle snap after one minute ....

 

 

[conanjaguar]

18 hours ago, Leeanda said:

May your tackle snap after one minute ....

Perhaps the most annoying thing in TLD…

[Sgt Socks]

May you plummet through the ice then be greeted by a hungry bear...

May you desperately climb a rope to escape a wolf but be so tired you fall to his waiting jaws...

May you be a complete idiot like Socks and think sparking cables only get you at the ends...

😜😁

[Leeanda]

40 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

Perhaps the most annoying thing in TLD…

Apart from sprains and ,walking into the wind ..  may you get them too😁

[Sgt Socks]

20 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Apart from sprains and ,walking into the wind ..  may you get them too😁

Sprains and cabin fever = most ridiculous and annoying features.

Hence I always play custom.

But yes Leeanda, I like your thinking!

Conan, may you sprain both ankles and wrists on flat ground while being pursued by a wolf, and have no bandages to hand

[xanna]

Just want to say how much I've been enjoying these stories while I was lurking. Good luck to you! Or bad luck! Or whatever it is that will work for you! May you extinguish your torch every time you try to pick a cattail

[conanjaguar]

Native 7 / Day 1 / Part 2

“Conan, what is best in life?”
”To have your hopes crushed, to see them driven before you, and to hear the laughing of @Leeandaand @Sgt Socks in a passing trolley car.”
”Excellent answer!”
(No offense meant to either of you two, by the way )

After a short nap, I poked at the fire for a bit, drank a cup of hot Reishi tea, and set out. I need to be out of this place, ASAP. After debating if my sleepy-eye could handle it, I decided to bite the bullet, slept for another hour, and set out into the snowy night, praying that there wouldn’t be a high wind. Fortunately, it was only lightly snowing, and the aurora was still in full swing. 

Following @Leeanda’s instructions, I was able to avoid the glowing wolves and reach a rather claustrophobic path through a narrow gorge. After a few minutes of going about my stick-picking ways, I saw a cue to leave TWM!

Now in Pleasant Valley, I continued to the rope and goated down it, as I was exhausted. I took a bit of a hit on my condition and sprained my wrist, bit was able to make it down safely. After a few frantic minutes of searching, I found the abandoned bunker, just as my condition turned red. I ducked inside, made for the bed, and clicked “sleep for 10 hours”. As soon as I did, I faded into The Long Dark.

How?! Even with the torch out, it was flt of -2C inside, and the bed gave a warmth bonus of +5C! I should have been warming up, but nooo. Instead, I had to freeze to death. Ironic isn’t it, that I should survive the perils of TWM, only to die in the very shelter I sought. 

I’ll see you guys with Native 8…

[Leeanda]

No!!!!  R.I.P..    maybe Murphy has changed tactics ???  Or I went too far?? 

I won't say anything!!🙂 

I'm glad my directions helped though .

[Sgt Socks]

Argh! Not cool, dying to a bug. Even my dodgy maths can work out you should have been warming up.

You did bloody well surviving TWM; that's a rough place even for experienced Lopers. I'm really annoyed on your behalf.

I think @Leeanda and I can start being ourselves again. Clearly the insults and discouragement didn't work either.

This is a tough challenge. I admire your tenacity in continuing to try!

[conanjaguar]

@Sgt Socks

I certainly don’t intend to give up on this challenge, but I feel that it’s time to take a step back for a while. I invite you all to join me in:

 

[xanna]

Yay, I was hoping you might go for this one. You're a natural storyteller so your entry to a storytelling challenge will be great to read

Edited October 31, 2022 by xanna
typo

[conanjaguar]

@xanna

For some reason, everyone says that . Maybe I should just quit school and become a full-time author!

[Sgt Socks]

1 hour ago, conanjaguar said:

@Sgt Socks

I certainly don’t intend to give up on this challenge, but I feel that it’s time to take a step back for a while. I invite you all to join me in:

 

Wise choice my friend 😊

I'm on my way over!

[Gun Tech.]

Game over on day 22/23. Drank a can of soda... (and didn't realize the violation until after I overwrote my save). Now, there's not enough hours left in November (for me) to do a restart. So this run of mine will not compete, it's violated but I will play on to find out if the challenge is achievable on Interloper.

But for others, I'm looking for ideas to be able to "pay" for a minor mistake like this (consuming a Modern food item). The best I've come up with is to burn 25kg of harvested meat (this will affect the rank of runs within the same difficulty - and you will also need to spend calories watching your food burn, and to actively hunt to compensate).

I will add this to the rules now (very late) in order to allow other runs to be saved for submission. But I'm listening to ideas about a more suitable punishment (that doesn't open up the possibility of abuse).

[conanjaguar]

2 hours ago, Gun Tech. said:

But I'm listening to ideas about a more suitable punishment

A few ideas of mine:

• Running around in circles in the cold for four hours to take a huge chunk off your condition.
• Inducing food poisoning and not being allowed to sleep it off.
• Not being able to consume any medicinal herbs for the next week.
• Not being able to sleep for two days straight.

[Gun Tech.]

On 11/16/2022 at 11:58 PM, conanjaguar said:

A few ideas of mine:

• Running around in circles in the cold for four hours to take a huge chunk off your condition.
• Inducing food poisoning and not being allowed to sleep it off.
• Not being able to consume any medicinal herbs for the next week.
• Not being able to sleep for two days straight.

Interesting, thank you. I'm trying to find a punishment that is equal on all skill levels, yet obviously not forcing end of run. 4h in the cold would give guaranteed frostbite for many players and end the run. Food poisoning without sleep IIRC bring you down to 20%, which would pretty much end the run for Nogoa difficulty players, as there is no regen, not even stims. No teas would force spending much more firewood to travel and is valid. During a week though, you would probably spend more than the estimated 25h of firewood for the current punishment. Not sleeping can be done on most modes and is sometimes what happens anyway, so I feel this is very lenient and could then be abused.

This doesn't mean I reject the ideas, it means I'll have a think. Ideas are good.  

[Leeanda]

Reduce food consumption by half for a set amount of days?

[conanjaguar]

Interloper / Native 9 / Preface

It’a been a while, hasn’t it?

The good news is that making a bear skin coat is going to be much easier… the bad news is that nothing is guaranteed anymore. Finding matches is going to be tricky, and the hammer… well, I’ll cross that bridge once I come to it,

Here’s the basic plan: I will start in Milton and hit the main places (looking at you, crash site…) for scrap metal and cloth. Hopefully Paradise Meadows will have a hammer. If not, then I’ll also check the usual spots in the Carter Hydro and Trapper’s. It is absolutely critical to the success of this run, so I need to find it as soon as possible.

My two main weaknesses are consistently 1. Cutting it extremely close with wolf encounters, and 2. Needing a bunch of firewood to keep torches going. Also note that goating down the cliff by the Ranger Station is extremely risky, and is how quite a few runs have met their end.